Expert reviews and ratings

This year was always likely to be a tricky one for Panasonic in TV terms, without having its ever-reliable plasma division to woo film fans. And to be honest it's lived up – and down – to expectations, with the brand so far delivering a slightly untidy...

The panel in the TX-42AS600 is prone to image lag and offers only so-so upscaling from SD to HD, but the excellent usability offered by both Freetime and Panasonic's My Home Screen smart TV platform are hard to resist.

Overall the 42AS600 is a very strong and capable TV for its money, offering a high feature count and some excellent picture traits for its fairly puny cost. Resolution fans may baulk at the extent sharpness is lost with moving images, but for relatively casual users of the sort most likely to be looking at a sub-£500 42-inch TV, it's certainly one of this year's better options.

The big problem with moving your entire TV line-up into a single technology is that you find yourself competing against companies that have been there much longer. Panasonic's decision to stop all plasma production means they are now exclusively selling...

Is Freetime worth a sacrifice? The panel in the TX-42AS600 is prone to image lag and poor contrast, and offers only so-so upscaling from SD to HD, but that doesn't stop this 42-inch LED TV being an early candidate for best value smart TV. The excellent...

Panasonic's AS600 does not offer the full Smart TV experience - dubbed Life+ - of the more expensive 2014 TVs, but has the features you have come to expect from a modern TV, including USB playback and a few TV apps, including Netflix and YouTube. Not bad...